My 3-month old started daycare yesterday. Unfortunately, I gave them the wrong nipple for her bottles. I gave them the Level 2 nipples instead of Level 1. When DD got home she was VERY difficult to feed from the breast. She cried and cried before bed and finally fell asleep without eating! She was up again at 3:30am, but only ate from my breast after crying again and I'm assuming that was because she was very hungry. This morning she ate 20ml from the slow flow nipple, but still refused my breast. I gave the daycare the Level 1 nipples today and I'm hoping she'll take them and go back to feeding from me at night. Will she take my breast again? What else can I do???!!! I'm desperate. This is stressing me out.

I'm so sorry. I really hope you can get her back to the breast. It will be an extra challenge for you because you have to continue to use bottles for daycare. I have a friend who went through this and her baby never took the breast again and she ended up exclusively pumping and she hated it.

I would recommend sending several small bottles, not more than 2 oz, with the slow flow nipples. Try to nurse right at drop-off if possible. Also, can you nurse on your lunch break? Basically, try to minimize the number of bottle feedings she will need in a day. When at home, don't feed her a bottle yourself, always nurse. If she must have a bottle at home, have someone else feed her so that she associates you only with nursing.

Unfortunately, I live too far away to nurse at lunch. I might only work 6 hours for the rest of the week so I can feed her in the afternoon. But if my hubby isn't home yet, I will have to feed her with the bottle! I have to figure out something because next week the daycare provider is on vacation, so I'm staying home all week with hubby. I don't want to make him feed her all day either.

There are other ways of supplementing besides a bottle. If she won't nurse and you don't want to give her a bottle yourself, then you can try cup feeding perhaps. Little babies, even newborns, can lap from an open cup. Try to do a search on alternatives to bottles and see what you find.

There are other ways of supplementing besides a bottle. If she won't nurse and you don't want to give her a bottle yourself, then you can try cup feeding perhaps. Little babies, even newborns, can lap from an open cup. Try to do a search on alternatives to bottles and see what you find.

I think this might be a great idea for you! I syringe fed for three weeks until DS learned to latch and it didn't seem to cause any confusion. I'm sure there are lots of good articles out there, but the way I did it I would put my finger in DS's mouth and wait for him to suck, then I would put a syringe in the corner of his mouth and slowly push milk into his mouth. I've never cup fed, but that could be an option. This could also be a nursing strike. Maybe try offering the breast when she is really sleepy. Good luck mama! I know this is difficult.

Thanks for all your support mamas, this is the hardest thing I've been through since DD was born!

She finally came back to breastfeeding after a week of bottle feeding, plenty of skin to skin time and co-sleeping for a couple of nights. She only sucked a little at first, and eventually started breastfeeding during the nighttime. I still don't have her back completely during the day. She usually gets her first feeding of the day on the breast and the rest of the day from the bottle with a couple minutes of breastfeeding here and there in between.

Today she's back at daycare for good. I hope she continues to breastfeed at night. For the past couple of nights she has cried for a minute or two before latching, and I hope this isn't a regression to refusing the breast. I tried cup feeding once or twice, but it was too messy. The syringe thing might work, but I just don't have the time to do that.

This whole thing is really tiring me out physically and mentally. Between working, feeding, pumping (at work and at home), cooking, cleaning bottles, etc.... I don't know how much longer I can keep it up. I barely have any time to take care of myself and my husband!

I've tried everything: feeding while tired or sleepy, feed after pumping for instant milk letdown, skin to skin time, co-sleeping, taking a bath with baby, carrying baby in a carrier, and I'm using Breastflow bottles which are supposed to be similar to breastfeeding. I haven't tried the syringe because I barely have enough time to do everything as it is, and I'm not sure where to start. Hopefully she'll come back to me one of these days! I can't wait to have a normal schedule/routine and not be so tired.

I had to "train" ODS back to the breast after he had been bottlefed for 6 weeks in the NICU. It was the hardest thing I had ever done. What I found to help was to offer the breast a lot, because he was more willing to try when he wasn't already hungry and was in a good mood. When he was hungry I think he just wanted the food in his stomach and couldn't understand why it wasn't in there already. Sometimes if he was really crying and going crazy I would give him a little (like 0.5-1 oz) in a bottle first. It took the edge off and then he was more willing to try at the breast.

With YDS first he wouldn't take a bottle at all. We had to move to the medium flow nipples to get him to take a bottle. Then after he got used to the bottle he seemed to not be entirely happy at the breast. I just kept trying with him and after a few weeks he settled down to being happy with either one--it's like now he understands that bottle is one way and breast is a different way. I loathe pumping and knew I wouldn't go to exclusively pumping, so I'm glad he sorted it out.

my dd didn't want the breast after the bottle either. i put her to sleep without eating that evening and immediately scoured the internet for ways to encourage the breast. i ended up kangarooing her naked for almost 12 hours during that night. she occasionaly will have a fit and refuses to latch if my let down takes too long after she received bottles all day due to me being at work. i just take her off the breast and console as much as possible. give her a pacifier. i never give her a bottle. she gets wrapped up in her favorite blanket and falls asleep. then i will wake her up and catch her while she's still groggy. pop! right on and we're golden.